Turn based RPG’s have been making a bit of a comeback lately. We’ve seen a few different ways to do it, and do it incredibly well with games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Artefacts Studio is looking to put their mark on the genre with the second game in the Disciples trilogy – Disciples: Domination. We recently had the chance to see a hands off preview of the game with the developers, and while the game might not reach Baldur’s Gate levels we can say things look promising.
During the roughly half hour preview we got to see the battle system against one of the game’s bosses, a dragon named Malekith. Before the battle starts you will get a look at the battlefield itself, which to me kind of looks like Age of Wonders. It is laid out as a hexagon filled map, each one representing a spot that characters can move into. During the pre-battle you can see the enemy formation and set your own formation as you look to take advantage of potential weaknesses. To do this you can highlight your own troops to get an idea of which enemies they will be most effective against.
At your disposal will be Avyanna, the now Queen of the Nevendaar after the events of Disciples: Liberation, as well as her companions and allies. Allies are basic units that you can recruit from your castle. If any units die in battle they are gone forever. Companions on the other hand will revive at the end of each battle, allowing you to keep them with you through the duration of the game.
The battlefields themselves also change size depending on the size of the fight. For example if you fight a boss it will be the largest battlefield. Face a few lesser enemies and it will be a rather small battlefield.
From there the battle can begin as you work to fight off the enemies, and in this case the boss. While you will of course want to defeat the boss as quickly as possible, taking out his minions first will help buy you time to attack the boss. However, it isn’t quite that simple as more minions can spawn in, so efficiency is of the upmost importance.
For a strategy RPG the battle itself seemed fairly simple. I’ll be curious to see how it plays when I can get hands on with the game and its various difficulties to see if there is more depth than we got to see in the preview. The ability to combine powers as synergies on your enemies seems like it could add to the depth, but we will have to see.
You will have 4 classes to choose from as well for Avyanna, and each class will have 2 different skill trees to work with. At first glance they reminded me of the Diablo 2 skill trees which has me excited to see what builds can be created. While you can’t continue to level up the same skill over and over, it will take an increasing amount of skill points to unlock the next skill in the tree.
Lastly on the battles themselves, you will not be able to save within the battle. Make a mistake and you will need to restart from the beginning. This will likely either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your approach to these strategy games and how difficult you want them to be. It’s does look like quite unforgiving system though.
Ruling A Kingdom Takes A Lot Of Work
While the combat itself seems fairly basic, the rest of the game has a lot going for it that im intrigued to see. Artefacts has introduced a fast travel system that will allow you to seamlessly jump around the world and revisit dungeons once you found them.
The thing I’m looking forward to seeing most however is the new Grievance system. As the Queen of Nevendaar, Avyanna will need to return to her kingdom from time to time to hear her citizens grievances. Grievances can be a variety of things and handled in a variety of ways. You may get a message from a nearby faction, saying they are under attack by another faction. You can then choose which faction to help and your rewards will be different.
Handling Grievances in specific ways can also open up different sections of the map. It’s an interesting system to use for an RPG and one I am looking forward to seeing how it works in real time.
Game Accessible To Fans New & Old
If you were thinking this game looks interesting but you haven’t played Disciples: Liberation I have good news. Artifacts Studio ensures that while you would of course get more out of the story if you have played Liberation, it is completely accessible to new players.
At the very beginning of the roughly 35 hour campaign, players will see a video allowing them to get brought back up to speed with what went on in Liberation.
With everything I’ve seen so far from Disciples: Domination, I am optimistic there is a solid RPG here worth playing. I can’t wait to get hands on myself and take a closer look a the battle system as I explore the world and rule as Avyanna. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to find out.
Disciples: Domination launches February 12th for Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5 and PC.
